How to weather this thunderstorm of chaos...

Last night, I was catapulted out of slumber by an atomic explosion of thunder. The casual cloud-cover that had tucked us into bed the previous evening had accumulated, agitated, and turned aggressive during the night. The concussion that startled me out of a deep sleep was not a mere clap, nor even an applause—it felt almost like a twisted, maniacal standing ovation of severe thunder with cacophonous encore after encore after encore.

As I laid in bed listening to the driving rain douse the window, the roiling wind whip the trees, and the voltaic lightening electrify the sky, I could not help but notice how the meteorological atmosphere over our geographic area was profoundly mirroring its political one.  

For weeks, there has been a rolling fog of unrest settling around the center of our state legislature.

Those serving in seats of authority have been trying to enforce and maintain their idea of safety, security and cool-headed executive order during this pandemic, while those deeply frightened of losing their jobs, homes and rights have let the heat of their tempers rise past the boiling point of containment. Two patterned fronts that have existed since the earth’s inception have seemed to have found each other once again. One group has perceived the cool air of lawful reason to have been perverted into the hypothermic, arctic freeze of their medical, economic and human rights. And from the other group’s vantage point, what were once the warm winds of reticence over the current lockdown have since turned into the hot, raging, fearful winds over the fight for free will.

Just like the raucous, dissonant lightening, rain and thunder started to fall upon our city, so, too, did the riotous, turbulent storm of protestors start to envelope our governmental buildings. People have clearly become fed up with being sheltered-in-place. The burgeoning civil unrest, however, is not limited to just Michigan. Our current climates—both political and meteorological—have caused a series of destructive, low pressure systems that have threatened to rip away at the very fabric of what weaves our state, our nation and our world so beautifully together. The cold air of fear meeting the warm air of well-being has, once again, caused apocalyptic combustion—something that humans have repeatedly participated in since the dawn of civilization. This atomic, electrical—seemingly cellular—torrent has undeniably been one of the most devastating evolutionary forces, but it has also been one of the most profound agents for change.

It may, presently feel like we are in the midst of an earthquake, hurricane and unparalleled squall happening all at once, but rest assured, the tectonic plates of compassion, belief, ideology, hope and understanding are shifting into place beneath our feet as radically as the pressure systems that have been afflicting our global climate.

With each frightful contraction of our world’s atmosphere comes its epic expansion into something new, something extraordinary, something awe-inspiring. It is already on its way.

During the obstreperous interim, let us help one another band together to weather this storm.

Let us extinguish aggression by stoking the embers of empathy and lighting the fire of our love so widely, so rampantly, that we cannot help but clear the skies, call the sun, and bring forth a new day.